Long before the British imposed their rule, or the Spanish before them, the Portuguese landed en route to Brazil and gave the island the name Los Barbados — the bearded ones, after the island’s wispy-tendrilled fig trees.

Highway 1 runs from the capital Bridge-town past all the big-name beachfront resorts in St Peter and St James parishes, mostly luxurious, self-contained enclaves such as Sandy Lane, the Royal Westmorland and the Sandpiper.

For such a tiny island, barely 21 miles long and 14 miles wide, Barbados has a disproportionate amount of hotels with most along the west or platinum coast, so called for the number of wealthy foreigners residing by its powder-smooth sands.

But my family and I were giving these exclusive resorts, where the likes of Simon Cowell and Tiger Woods hang out, a miss in favour of a long-established but less flash affair called Cobblers Cove in St Peter.

Once past the ostentatiously long drives and pink-gated hotels and villas you could almost blink and miss Cobblers Cove, so understated by contrast is the entrance just off the roadside.

I’ve often wondered why some people choose to book into colonial-style hotels, championing a class and lifestyle that they may never have belonged to anyway with afternoon tea, the Daily Telegraph and so on.

Cobblers Cove is such a place, a real English eccentric, painted dusky pink with a castellated turret sporting a mural of a monkey. Really.

The equally eccentric but tragic Rausing family own property along here, as do a reported 18 billionaires.

It’s all very English country house set against lushly cultivated grounds thick with palms and frangipani, through which suites are reached along red-brick paths, warm from the sun. Books piled high beside beds, shortbread biscuits and iced water left in rooms at night and no televisions in bedrooms all hark back to an “old school” ethos.

At first I found it strangely bizarre, but Cobblers Cove soon grows on you. Despite not living in a pink castle nor upholding particularly English traditions — morning cup of tea and Sunday roasts aside — myself, partner and eight-year-old daughter soon found ourselves feeling at home here.

A little breakfast banter with the staff set us off to a good start — along with the expected full English, kippers and salmon, and pancakes off the menu with succulent banana bread from the buffet table. Although the food isn’t authentic Caribbean, from breakfast to dinner it was generally all good.

I never tired of blackened shrimp salad with grapefruit and avocado for lunch or Barker’s (the local fisherman) catch of the day. And Friday is caviar and vodka night. Afternoon tea at 4pm prompt had us checking our watches.

The high number of repeat guests — writer Hunter Davies among them — reveals regulars really don’t care if the small pool area is a little jaded or rooms need sprucing up. But the new general manager — who has been bought in from one of the Caribbean’s best hotels, Carlisle Bay — and the owners do, and are currently refurbishing in phases, with chintzy patterned suites being toned down and a general smartening up.

Since our summer stay the hotel has launched tailor-made heritage tours, mirroring Bridgetown’s newly awarded Unesco heritage status, including visits to plantation houses, such symbols of slavery, not usually open to the public.

Cobblers Cove itself was originally built in 1943 by Joseph Haynes, a wealthy sugar baron and politician, as a weekend retreat from the family home on the rugged east coast called Camelot. Since colonial times the area has been popular as a holiday retreat for the British upper crust.

Just along the road is Speightstown, Barbados’s second-largest town, which was once dubbed Little Bristol for its trade with the UK, shipping first tobacco and cotton then sugar. It was so important that forts were built to protect it.

However, English troops invaded in 1651 leading to the Charter of Barbados, which stated the island was to accept the authority of the English parliament — an agreement that lasted until independence in 1966.

Now it’s a scruffily colourful town and home to a couple of restaurants, galleries, supermarkets and rum shops.

Far livelier is the traditional Friday fish fry (also on Saturday) in the fishing village of Oistins on the south coast, an event that creates a city-style traffic jam as the entire island heads for the tiny fish shacks selling hot flying fish and cold bottles of Banks beer.

This was more like a party than any other Caribbean fish fry I’ve been to with colourful fairy lights strung up between restaurants and plastic tables and chairs crammed into any spot.

As we ate macaroni pie, rice and peas and red snapper, country and western karaoke blared from the speakers to each side of the stage. Not one person — young or old — changed the music. Not one. Barbadians clearly love their country music as much as they do their cricket.

For a hipper night out, the Cliff restaurant is renowned for its dramatic setting, just past Holetown and its designer stores close to the crop of expensive hotels led by Sandy Lane.

Cut high into cliffs overlooking the sea, flaming torches set the scene at what is considered one of the island’s best restaurants and most popular celebrity hangouts.

The glamour and the torches made me think of an Eighties Duran Duran video — I expected to see a pouty Simon Le Bon in a white suit. Instead sharply dressed waiters brought sautéed scallops with truffle mash, Cajun salmon and steak.

A literally more down-to-earth experience was Harrison’s Cave at Welchman Hall in the centre of the island, named after Thomas Harrison who owned the surrounding flat lands.

First documented by a historian as being used by runaway slaves in 1647, these limestone caves weren’t rediscovered until the 1970s and finally excavated for public use in 1981.

There is something very beautiful in their previously secret stalactite and stalagmite formations. Electric trams transport you along the dripping, amber-hued cave system, which will ring to a different rhythm when it hosts a performance during this month’s jazz festival.

But for me the Caribbean is all about the ocean. Cobblers Cove’s own boat takes guests the 10 minutes or so around the bay for a private turtle swim (free for summer offer guests). Jeremy from the water sports team dropped fresh fish into the clear blue waters and sure enough a family — what we assumed to be a mum, dad and baby due to their corresponding sizes — swam under and around the boat. The dreamy experience was tempered by my foot clumsily brushing the side of the “dad’s” ear as I trod water. I doubt that ever happened to Jacques Cousteau.

Stunning beaches, historical hotels, a rich heritage and festivals, Barbados has it all ... Now I really must go and pour myself a cup of tea and rustle up a cucumber sandwich.

DETAILS: BARBADOS

British Airways offers seven nights at Cobblers Cove from £1,399pp B&B based on two sharing, for travel between May 6 and July 4 including return British Airways flights. Book by Jan 22, ba.com/barbados